Prefers Color Scheme

Prefers Color Scheme lets you use light and dark color schemes in all browsers, following the Media Queries specification.

npm install css-prefers-color-scheme

There are 2 steps required to get color schemes working:

• Transform your queries using the included PostCSS plugin.
• Apply your queries using the included browser library.

PostCSS Plugin

Prefers Color Scheme transforms prefers-color-scheme media queries into something all browsers understand.

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --site-bgcolor: #1b1b1b;
    --site-color: #fff;
  }
}

body {
  background-color: var(--site-bgcolor, #f9f9f9);
  color: var(--site-color, #111);
  font: 100%/1.5 system-ui;
}

/* becomes */

@media (color-index: 48) {
  :root {
    --site-bgcolor: #1b1b1b;
    --site-color: #fff;
  }
}

body {
  background-color: var(--site-bgcolor, #f9f9f9);
  color: var(--site-color, #111);
  font: 100%/1.5 system-ui;
}

Browser Library

Prefers Color Scheme applies color schemes previously transformed by the PostCSS plugin.

// initialize prefersColorScheme (applies the system color scheme, if available)
const prefersColorScheme = require('css-prefers-color-scheme')();

// apply "dark" queries
prefersColorScheme.scheme = 'dark';

// apply "light" queries (also disabling "dark" queries)
prefersColorScheme.scheme = 'light';

The script is also available from the unpkg.com CDN:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/css-prefers-color-scheme/browser.js"></script>
<script>
// initialize prefersColorScheme (applies the system color scheme, if available)
initPrefersColorScheme()
</script>

A minified version is also available:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/css-prefers-color-scheme/browser.js"></script>
<script>
// initialize prefersColorScheme (applies the system color scheme, if available)
initPrefersColorScheme()
</script>

Prefers Color Scheme works in all major browsers, including Safari 6+ and Internet Explorer 9+ without any polyfills. See it for yourself.

Browser Usage

Use Prefers Color Scheme to activate your prefers-color-scheme queries:

const prefersColorScheme = require('css-prefers-color-scheme')();

By default, the system color scheme is applied, if your browser supports it. Otherwise, the light color scheme is applied. You may override this by passing in a color scheme.

const prefersColorScheme = require('css-prefers-color-scheme')('dark');

The prefersColorScheme object returns the following properties:

value

The value property returns the currently preferred color scheme, and can be set to change it.

const prefersColorScheme = require('css-prefers-color-scheme')();

// log the preferred color scheme
console.log(prefersColorScheme.scheme);

// apply "dark" queries
prefersColorScheme.scheme = 'dark';

hasNativeSupport

The hasNativeSupport boolean represents whether prefers-color-scheme is supported by the current browser.

onChange

The onChange function can be added in order to listen for changes to the preferred color scheme, whether they are triggered by the system or manually by the change function.

removeListener

The removeListener function removes the native prefers-color-scheme listener, which may or may not be applied, depending on your browser support. This is provided to give you complete control over plugin cleanup.

PostCSS Usage

Use Prefers Color Scheme to process your CSS:

const postcssPrefersColorScheme = require('css-prefers-color-scheme/postcss');

postcssPrefersColorScheme.process(YOUR_CSS /*, processOptions, pluginOptions */);

Or use it as a PostCSS plugin:

const postcss = require('postcss');
const postcssPrefersColorScheme = require('css-prefers-color-scheme/postcss');

postcss([
  postcssPrefersColorScheme(/* pluginOptions */)
]).process(YOUR_CSS /*, processOptions */);

Prefers Color Scheme runs in all Node environments, with special instructions for:

How does it work?

The Prefers Color Scheme PostCSS plugin transforms prefers-color-scheme queries into color-index queries, changing prefers-color-scheme: dark into (color-index: 48), prefers-color-scheme: light into (color-index: 70), and prefers-color-scheme: no-preference into (color-index: 22).

The frontend receives these color-index queries, which are understood in all major browsers going back to Internet Explorer 9. However, all browsers only apply a color-index of 0, so all other values are otherwise ignored.

Prefers Color Scheme changes (color-index: 48) queries into not all and (color-index: 48) to activate “dark mode” specific CSS, and then it inverts (color-index: 70) queries into not all and (color-index: 48) to activate “light mode” specific CSS.

@media (color-index: 70) { /* prefers-color-scheme: light */
  body {
    background-color: white;
    color: black;
  }
}

These valid queries are accessible to document.styleSheet, so no css parsing is required to use this library, which is how the script is only 482 bytes.

Why does the fallback work this way?

The value of 48 is chosen for dark mode because it is the keycode for 0, the hexidecimal value of black. Likewise, 70 is chosen for light mode because it is the keycode for f, the hexidecimal value of white.